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Sir David Wilkie (1785-1841)

George IV at Holyrood House: A portrait sketch 1822-3

Oil on panel | 32.1 x 23.2 cm (support, canvas/panel/stretcher external) | RCIN 408655

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  • This sketch was made as part of the complex process of planning and painting one of Sir David Wilkie’s most ambitious paintings The Entrance of George IV at Holyrood House (RCIN 401187).

    Wilkie was highly favoured by the king and was appointed as the King’s Limner in Scotland in 1823, at which time he began painting this royal scene. The king’s visit to Edinburgh in August 1822 was the first time a reigning British monarch had visited Scotland since Charles I. The event was a significant one and Wilkie shows this through the size of the finished picture, which is over 6 feet long.

    It was important for Wilkie to achieve the perfect pose for the king in his painting. On 27th August 1823, he presented the king with a number of oil sketches showing him in different positions. Robert Peel wrote that Wilkie ‘has quite failed in his likeness of the King… He has made three different sketches in different attitudes but his conception of the King’s person and manner is not at all a correct one.’ The King, however, found one sketch to his liking describing it ‘as being in attitude and figure very near the mark’.

    It seems likely that this sketch may have been one of those presented to the king and the model for the figure of the monarch in the finished painting. The rich detailing and modelling in this sketch create a characterful and flattering image of the king, whilst the swirls at the feet of the monarch, identifiable as the dogs in the final painting, indicate that the sketch was made when the composition of the painting was fairly advanced. The confident martial stance, with the legs apart is very similar to the final composition, although the positioning of the arms has changed. Another sketch of the king by Wilkie exists in the Royal Collection showing the king in a similar pose (RCIN 409055). 

    Provenance

    Purchased for the Royal Collection from Lowell Lisbon & Jonny Yarker Ltd, December 2018

  • Medium and techniques

    Oil on panel

    Measurements

    32.1 x 23.2 cm (support, canvas/panel/stretcher external)

    52.3 x 43.2 x 6.7 cm (frame, external)

  • Category
    Object type(s)
  • Other number(s)

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